Our Field Trip Is Going Ahead

It's Field Trip Day!  Just a few reminders about today:

• No morning session 
• All kinderkids will attend the afternoon session (12:25 - 3:00)
• Schoolbags and snack bags are not needed
• Dress warm (snow pants, hats, mittens, etc) 
• Volunteers can meet us at The Fluvarium for 12:40.

MDE's Countdown to Christmas :: Calendar Changes

There have been changes made to the MDE Countdown to Christmas Events.   The monthly school newsletter that was emailed from Ms. Chafe last week lists the revised version of our school Christmas activities.  I am listing the events below.  Please make adjustments on our December Kindergarten Calendar to avoid confusion. Please note that there will not be a Secret Santa gift exchange as previously stated on December’s calendar. 

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah!  Today we talked about the Jewish celebration Hanukkah! We created special fabric menorahs to light up our classroom.  We hope you like the clips below as much as we did!
Happy Hanukkah!

Leaf Creatures

After we read Lois Ehlert's book Leaf Man, we made our very own leaf creatures.  We decided to record our very own stories about them.  You can click on the links below to hear our stories.  We hope you like them!

Our Blue Group Stories

Our Red Group Stories

Spikeys Castle

Today our friends Noah, Zarif, Isabella, Riley, Bridget, Gerard and Jackson started a story. We would like our friends around the world to add to our story! Leave us a comment to let us know what should happen next.

Once upon a time Spikey wanted a castle. He found a castle that was perfect for him. He sat in his chair and wanted to stay in it forever.

But...
then a blue fire-breathing dragon with eight horns came and burned down the front door! ...

Next...
A brave Knight came and wrestled with the dragon! He scared the dragon away and he never came back again!

Finally...
Spikey came out of the castle and said "Thank you brave Knight for saving my castle from the dragon." Spikey and the Knight became best friends.

The End

Peace is...

Peace is...

saying I'm sorry. (Gerard)
watching my little brother sleep. (Hannah)
playing with my little brother Ethan. (Lauren)
cuddling on the couch with my daddy. (Julia)
playing with my big brother Ethan. (Noah)
playing on the playground with my sister. (Eva)
playing with my brother. (Leah)
tickling my baby brother. (Rasil)
playing with my batman toy with my mom. (Zarif)
giving a big smile when my friends talk to me and playing with my sister Sophie.(Matthew)
when I am quietly sleeping. (Jackson)
watching SpongeBob with my mommy. (Riley)
going for a drive with my mommy and my brother and sister. (Jade)
playing with my little sister. (Shelby)
cooking supper with my mommy. (Lydia)
tickling my little brother and my little sister. (Elsa)
playing with my friends. (Haroon)
playing with my little brother. (Bridget)
playing with my Russian dolls. (Kaleigh)

...

being kind. (Kaelie)
wearing flowers, like a poppy for Remembrance Day. (Anya)
taking a nap with my cat. (Michael)
loving people. (Corinne)
going to my nanny and poppy's house to play with my dog. (Nathan)
playing with my sister and sleeping with my cat. (Elsa)
playing with my dog. (Xavier)
being with my dad and my mom. (Angelina)
spending some time with my friends. (Lily)
playing with my friends Elsa and Edward. (Sophia)
going out with my mommy. (Samantha)
helping people. (Olivia)
playing with my toy dog. (Logan)
going on a walk with my dog and my mommy. (Carter)
keeping my dog safe. (Brianna)
playing on the computer. (Jasmine)
playing with my Dad. (Maria)
playing with my brother. (Sulafah)
is helping my family. (Aiden)

A Halloween Performance

After a day of Halloween fun, we decided to visit Madame Mills and her boys and girls to share one of our Halloween songs with them. We were able to capture the Blue Groups performance on video. We hope you like it!

 

Calling All Letter Experts! Let the Detective Work Begin!

We have been working hard on learning all about our first set of letters Ss, Aa, Tt, Pp, Ii, and Nn and have learned a song and action to help us remember each one.



Now I have a mission for you at home.  We are trying to find as many different things around our house that begin with each letter.  However, you do not need to bring them into kindergarten.  Instead, leave us a comment at the bottom of this post to let us know what you find for each letter.  We will collect them all and turn it into a special project!

Let the letter hunting begin!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It! The Blue Group is Getting a New Friend!

Monday will be a very exciting day for the Blue Group Kinderkids.  We will be having a new friend join our class.  We look forward to meeting Haroon and showing him around our classroom! It's sure to be a fun filled day!

PJ Day in support of the Janeway Hospital

Jamarama was a huge success! We wore our PJ's today and collected money for our  Children's Hospital.

We can't wait to find out how much we raised! Thank you to all for your support! 

What a Reader Does

We are working on touching each word carefully - one by one - as we read a line of text.  One of our kinderkids wanted to show the world how great she is at touching each word as she spoke it! Great job K.

The Book Fair is Here!

Ms. Warren is explaining our book fair to the kinder kids! We are getting ready to make a wish list with our pod six helpers!

Our gym looks very different with all these books here! Let the exploring begin!

Tweet! from Kindergarten

We have been hearing some tweeting sounds in our classroom lately and have finally discovered where they were coming from Twitter!

We love to share what we are doing with the world through our class blog, but now we have found another way....Twitter!

On Monday, we received a tweet from a mystery kindergarten class @FraziersFriends . We enjoyed asking and answering questions to find out more about our new friends!

We look forward to getting to know many new friends around the world.  If you are on twitter, we'd love you to follow our tweets @MDEKinderkids .

Rainbow Roll and Write

We learned how to play a new game today.....Rainbow Roll and Write!  We are becoming experts at making letters! Do you have a favourite way to practise your letters?   Leave us a comment to let us know what it is!

PJ Day is Coming on Friday

Our Field Trip is Going Ahead

We just spoke with Heidi from the Pumpkin Patch and we are a go for our filed trip.  The weather is supposed to clear in the afternoon - so fingers crossed that the showers will be ended by the time we get there! Be sure to have the kinders come dressed for wet weather....it will likely be muddy....but fun!

Just a few reminders...

- no morning classes tomorrow.  All kinders will meet at 12:25 in the front of the school to board the bus.  We will not be meeting in the kindergarten classroom.

- no school bags or snack bags are needed.  We will be having a snack of hot chocolate and apples at the Pumpkin Patch

- each child should bring a reusable shopping bag to carry their pumpkin. Please make sure that the bag is clearly marked with your child's name.  I do have some extras...if you are in need of one please let me know.

Thanks to those who were able to volunteer for our trip. If you have a camera I would love for you to bring it along.  We will be divided up into 2 or 3 groups - so I may need your help capturing pics of our kinderkids exploring!  I will have a card for all volunteers with the names of the kinders in your group.  We'll get our groups together at the patch.

See you soon!

How A Pumpkin Grows

Tomorrow we will be going on our very first field trip! We get to visit a Pumpkin Patch. We found a video about how pumpkins grow.

 

We learned...

Big machines had to clean the pumpkins.
People were harvesting pumpkins.
Pumpkin pie looks yummy!
Pumpkins grow from a seed.
You need special machines to turn a pumpkin into a pumpkin  pie.
Bees have to come to the yellow flower to make a pumpkin grow.
Pumpkins have to have a bath just like us.

We wonder...

Will we see a yellow flower tomorrow?
Will we see a big machine harvesting pumpkins?

Our Sharing Soup

Did you hear about our Thanksgiving Celebration? After reading the story Stone Soup, we decided to have our own harvest by bringing in some of our favourite vegetables and working together to make our own "Sharing Soup". It took us a few days, but we did it! There were vegetables of every kind. We even had alphabet noodles mysteriously appear in our bowls! Today we looked at some of our photos and talked about what happened step by step. We added our voices to the timeline below to tell a little of our story. Be sure to click on the speaker sign below to hear our voices! Tomorrow we will try to write the recipe to share with you.We hope you like it!

Our First Field Trip is Coming Soon

It's almost time!  We hope that the weather will cooperate on Friday and our trip to Taylor's Pumpkin Patch will go ahead.  All kindergarten classes will be travelling to the Pumpkin Patch together in the afternoon.  As a result, there will be no morning classes on Friday.  All kinderkids will instead come for the afternoon session. We will meet at the front of the school to board the bus at 12:25 p.m. Just a reminder that the children will only need to bring a reusable shopping bag to hold their pumpkin.  No schoolbags or snack bags will be needed. 

Thank you to all those who sent back their slips for volunteering.  We will be sending home additional details (and a map) later this week.  

We Are Thankful

Thanksgiving is coming.  Today we talked about all that we are thankful for.

Zarif is thankful for food.
Elsa is thankful for parties.
Kaleigh is thankful for celebrations.
Eva is thankful for bowling with her family.
Hannah is thankful for her Aunt Kathy.
Riley is thankful for riding his scooter at the skatepark.
Isabella is thankful for Thanksgiving.
Shelby is thankful for birthdays.
Jade is thankful for Howie the cat.
Noah is thankful for playing laser tag with his family and friends.
Rasil is thankful for playing at Halloween time with her brother.
Lydia is thankful for Valentine's Day.
Julia is thankful for having sleepovers with Nadia, Malcolm and Sophie.
Bridget is thankful for family.
Lauren is thankful for her room in her house and especially her pink curtains.
Leah is thankful for birthdays.
Matthew is thankful for his dog Gracie.
Mrs. Fennemore is thankful for all her kindergarten friends.

Nathan is thankful for his dogs Max and Zoe.
Elsa is thankful for birthday parties and making friends and kisses for her sister.
Kaelie is thankful for presents.
Logan is thankful for his Nanny.
Samantha is thankful for love for Mommy and Daddy.
Ali is thankful for the 8 people in his house.
Michael is thankful for playing with his family and giving them snuggles.
Angelina is thankful for birthdays.
Lily is thankful for Valentine's.
Maria is thankful for her cat Sheba.
Jasmine is thankful for birthdays.
Brianna is thankful for her dog Gage.
Anya is thankful for Halloween.
Xavier is thankful for his dog Zoe.
Sophia is thankful for Halloween.
Aiden is thankful for trick or treating on Halloween.
Corinne is thankful for Valentine's Day.
Sulafah is thankful for Halloween.
Carter is thankful for Mommy!

What are you thankful for?

We're Going To A Pumpkin Patch!

To coincide with our unit on Pumpkins and Fall, we have decided to visit a pumpkin patch in Foxtrap. Our field trip has been confirmed for the afternoon of Friday October 18th.   Please note that ALL KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN WILL COME TO SCHOOL FOR THE AFTERNOON SESSION ONLY on this day. There will be NO morning classes.  The cost of the field trip is $7.00 per child. This should be returned to school along with the permission slip you received on Friday by Tuesday October 15^th.

As we will be outside for the field trip, we ask that all children come dressed appropriately (warm clothing, mittens, rubber boots, etc.).  Should the weather not be suitable on the 18th, an announcement will be posted on our blog and all children will attend their regular morning or afternoon session.  

Please note that a snack will be provided at the pumpkin patch.  School bags will not be necessary on that day. 

We would love to have a parent volunteers to help with a small group of children.  If you are able to meet us in Foxtrap and volunteer for the afternoon, please indicate on the slip and return at your earliest convenience. 

Fire Prevention Week

Next week is Fire Prevention Week. We have been learning about our fire escape plan at school. Do you have your escape plan made at home? Sparky has some great tips for you!

We love to read

We are learning how to be great readers in kindergarten! We hope you enjoy our September Poem!

 

 Do you have a favourite story or poem? Leave a comment to let us know!

Volunteers Needed

Macdonald Drive Elementary Kindergarten: Volunteers Needed: Please click below if your are able and interested in helping us with some material prep work in October :) We thank you for any help you c...

Introducing Bubbles Rainbow

We have a new friend.  He is a boy Beta fish.  We learned about voting this week and took a vote to decide his name.  Bubbles Rainbow is getting to know us.  He likes to eat snack when we eat snack.  We do not know very much about Beta Fish.  We are looking for Beta experts who may be able to answer our questions.  If you know of any, send them our way!

Zero The Hero

Yesterday was our 10th day of kindergarten. We received a gift from Zero the Hero.

We  made  a bracelet. It had 10 beads.

We drew pictures of Zero the Hero.

We played the countdown game.

Zero has a favorite number. It is 0.

Matthew said he likes Zero the Hero.

Zarif told us a story about Zero the Hero.

Kindergarten Busing Begins Monday

Macdonald Drive Elementary Kindergarten: Kindergarten Busing Begins Monday:

Busing is always the one area that gives most headaches to parents and teachers and bus drivers!  We acknowledge this and apologize f...

We Did It!

Today was the day and I am happy to report that 38 kinderkids, parents and teachers were brave as we made it through our first day of kindergarten! It was quite a hectic day but we sure had a lot of fun meeting new friends and exploring our new classroom.

This year, we are very fortunate to have Ms. Pynn, a teacher intern from Memorial University, working with both our Blue Group (AM class) and Red Group (PM class). Ms. Pynn will be with us until December and I have a feeling we will have many exciting adventures throughout the term! Along with welcoming Ms. Pynn, we will also have the assistance of two other teachers Ms. McKinnon (Blue Group) and Ms. Upward (Red Group) as well as a student assistant Ms. Tobin.  You can be assured, we will all work together with you to ensure your child has the best kindergarten year possible.

We are looking forward to a wonderful year in kindergarten!

COUNTDOWN WEBSITE

Spread your wings little birdies...

Well it has happened...our last day of kindergarten has come and gone.  Summer fun is here.  Time to explore new things and have new adventures with family and friends... what could be better, right?

It only seems fitting that I share an update on our living things! ;)

Our Painted Lady Butterflies are likely flying around your gardens laying eggs under leaves on the trees.  Be sure to keep your eyes open to look for them! You never know what other eggs you may find if you explore enough!

Our potato plants are planted outside kindergarten.  Our Blue group ran out of time so Mr. Downton planted them for us.  Did you know he was a potato plant expert? Thank you Mr. Downton!  We hope we will have a full crop of potatoes in the fall! If any of you are down around the school over the summer, please have a look at them to see if you see any growth!

My pea pod plant has pea pods on it!  Yippee! Miss Lori would be proud.  I wonder if any of the kinderkids have pea pods yet?

And now a little sad news.  Not all living things will survive, no matter how much you take care of them.  Our pumpkin plant that we had planted outside kindergarten has officially died.  I wonder if any of the kinderkids had better luck.  Keep watching for the yellow flowers...and then buzzzzzzzzzz.... remember you may need to pretend to be a bee!

Just before school ended.  Mr. Downton made a discovery outside his dining room window.  We were very excited when he sent us some pictures of what he found... Beautiful Robin eggs!  And in the words of one of the kinderkids from the Blue Group - "She's having triplets!" :)

Here is the momma protecting her eggs and waiting for them to be born!

And on Friday, the day after our kinderkids finished kindergarten, the baby birds met their momma...and Mr. Downton! They don't look much like their momma yet.  They have a lot of growing to do and need a lot of love and care. 

 And on day 4 - looks like they are hungry...or telling Mr. Downton not to get too close!

 As Mr. Downton sends me updates, I'll be sure to post them here!  

Happy Summer Everyone!

Love, Mrs. Fennemore :)

Pig

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Goat

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Chick

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Dog

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Fish

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Cat

• Click to view my tale.
• 

Getting Ready For Pod One!

Today was our grade one day!  We came to school for the whole day! We spent a lot of the day with the Pod One friends to see what their day was like.

 We even ate lunch with them!  It was fun!

Here's what we liked best:

Natalia liked eating lunch at school. We ate lunch in Pod One.
Mark liked learning about Science in Pod One!
Rihanna liked playing outside.
Ibrahim liked working in Pod One. Daily 5 in Pod One was best. He read to a Pod One friend.

Gavin liked doing science with his friends. We looked at the Pod One Bean plants.
Claire liked working on her flower. It was fun!
Aiden liked doing the activity on the smartboard about flowers. He also liked going outside and playing with the Pod One friends.

Ayesh liked learning about science and playing outside! She loved everything!
Ava loved having lunch in Pod One and going outside.

Taewoo liked the part where we were together!
Albert liked going outside.
Katie liked going outside too!

Katrin says she loves grade one!

Thank you to the Pod One friends and teachers for making our day so special!

Our Trip to Lester's Farm

This morning we met Farmer Jim and his helpers at Lester's Farm. 

It was such a beautiful morning and we were thankful that the showers stayed away! Thank you to all the helpers who came along to make sure we were safe and lend a helping hand.

Here is what some of our friends had to say about our visit (more pictures coming soon):

Sarah liked feeding the animals especially the donkey.

Benjamin liked the tractor ride when we got a chance to look at the animals outside.

Claire liked her ice cream.

Mrs. Fennemore loved the llamas.  They were great guards for the sheep!

Kristina liked the baby chicks. We even spied some eggs!

Gavin's favourite part was eating Butterscotch ice cream.

Albert liked the wagon ride and eating ice cream.


Jack liked petting the goat that was walking around him outside the barn.

Grant liked eating Neapolitan ice cream.

Taewoo liked eating his ice cream.

Ayesh liked when we saw the pumpkin plants growing just like ours!

We learned how to feed a horse with a flat hand.

We learned that the llamas spit rocks at the coyotes to scare them away so they won't hurt the sheep.

We learned that the grandma cow is going to have a baby calf any day now.  you should go back and visit!

We learned that Farmer Jim grows lots of vegetables on his farm.  We saw the fields where corn, carrots and parsnips will grow.

We learned that it is a lot of work to be a farmer!

We wonder if our friends around the world have farms and if you have ever visited one?  Maybe you could let us know!

Farm Field Trip

Just a reminder that all Kinders are attending the morning session for our trip to Lester's Farm on Pearltown Road! We will be loading the bus by 8:45 to make sure we get to the farm on time. Thank you to those who are able to come along to help us for the morning.  We hope to meet you at the farm for 9:15 and will return to MDE for pickup at 12:00.  No schoolbags or snackbags will be needed for the morning.  Just come dressed appropriately for a morning on the farm!

Our Caterpillars

We have real caterpillars.

We are learning all about them.  Here is what we know so far:
We have Painted Lady Caterpillars and they will turn into Painted Lady Butterflies.
Our caterpillars have black skin.
Caterpillars bite a hole in their egg and break out and wriggle free.
Caterpillars shed their skin when it gets too small for their body.
Our caterpillars have some gold stripes on them.  It is hard to see.
Our caterpillars wiggle slowly.
They have spiky fur on their body.
Caterpillars have 6 arms and 10 legs.

Watching Baby Chicks

Today we were watching a live stream of Mrs. Poulin's Kindergarten Class.  They have eggs hatching in their classroom!  We watched some eggs wiggle and jiggle and one looked like the chick would come out at any time! 

If you would like to watch at home, here is the link!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/mrs.-poulin%27s-kindergarten-class

The Three Little Pigs Opera

Today we had The Opera Roadshow visit our school to tell us the story of The Three Little Pigs - Opera Style. It was our first time hearing opera singers, and it sure was a wonderful performance!

Claire liked that the Big Bad Wolf and the little pig were running around us!
Mark liked the wolf's clothes.
Amelia liked how the Big Bad Wolf blew the house down.
Kristina liked it when the wolf jumped on the pig.
Mackenzie liked it when two little pigs were scared.
Ava's favourite character was the wolf!
Aiden liked when the wolf was a statue and he jumped to get the pigs!
Benjamin liked it when one of the pigs were playing Piggie Ninjago!
Gavin liked it when the wolf took out his fork and knife and almost chopped up the pigs!
Taewoo liked the part when the wolf was trying to eat the pigs.
Sarah said the opera singers sang really loud.
Did you know that some opera singers sing low and some opera singers sing high?
We loved shouting Bravo! at the end of the performance!

We hope that we get to see another opera again soon. We loved it! Have you ever been to an opera?

A Special Thank You

Earlier this Fall, I submitted a grant proposal to an organization My Class Needs in hopes of receiving a new selection of Nelson leveled home reading materials for my kinderkids. Thanks to generous donations from anonymous donors, My Class Needs was able to approve our grant!

Just after the kinderkids left this afternoon, a box was delivered to our classroom! Look what I found inside...

We will have a lot of excited kinderkids on Monday who will be busy reading all these new books!  I'll be sure to post some clips of their reading!

Thank You My Class Needs and all the donors who supported us!

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! We love our Earth! 

Today we taught Mme Duff-Keats and Ms. Power's Kinderkids how to plant seeds.

First we mixed up  the soil with  a little bit of water until it was damp.

Then we filled our egg cartons with soil.

Next, we used our finger to dig a hole.

Then, we put a seed in each hole.  We planted a pea seed and a tomato seed.

Finally we gave it 3 squirts of water.

Now we wait for it to grow!

Meeting Ms. Brett's Kinderkids on Skype

Today was an exciting day for the Red Group!  We had just settled in to play a new game "Kindergarten Yahtzee", when we heard a skype call coming in! We quickly raced to the floor to find out Ms. Brett's Kindergarten class from Torbay was calling.  We chatted a little, asked each otherquestions, shared some favourite poems and songs and even had a few friends who read stories all on their own.  We ended our call by doing "The Steamroller" together. It sure was fun.

Now that we've met, we will be enjoying some SkypePlay between our two classes!  We look forward to learning lots about our new friends!